60 lakh new voters in poll-bound Karnataka: Official

Bengaluru, Feb 17 : About 60 lakh people have enrolled as new voters across Karnataka ahead of the 15th assembly elections, due in late April or early May, said an official on Saturday.

"The number of new voters across the state has increased by 60 lakh, taking the total number of electorate to 4.96 crore as per the tentative electoral rolls as against 4.36 crore voters in 2013 assembly elections," state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sanjiv Kumar told reporters here.

The final electoral rolls from the 224 assembly constituencies of the state are scheduled to be released on February 28.

According to the tentative electoral rolls, the number of male voters is 2.51 crore and female voters 2.44 crore.

Around 4,552 people, who identify with the 'third gender', have registered to vote in the upcoming polls.A

"The number of young voters (aged 18-19), who will be voting for the first time, has doubled to 15.42 lakh as per the tentative rolls as against 7.18 lakh in 2013 elections," Kumar added.

Bengaluru South assembly constituency has the highest number of voters at 5.5 lakh.

Sringeri constituency, about 320 km west of Bengaluru in Chikkamagaluru district, has the lowest number of voters at 1.6 lakh, as per the draft rolls.

There were about 2.18 lakh voters on an average in each constituency, Kumar said.